Turning Failure Into Success

Your latest marketing promotion didn’t get the response you were hoping for.

Only a handful of people signed up for the teleclass you were so excited to offer.

After expecting to sell hundreds of your information product, you only sold a few.

It’s frustrating when you put a lot of time and energy into a new product, service, or marketing campaign only to have it fall flat.

It happens to the best of us.

Any business owner who’s been in business for any length of time will tell you it’s just part of being in business.

Remember New Coke? Or Betamax?

And, we’ve all heard the story of Thomas Edison failing 1000 times before successfully inventing the light bulb.

So what do you do when thing are not working?

First, you don’t give up.

Second, you step back and re-evaluate.

Here are 10 questions you can ask yourself to jump-start that evaluation:

1. Are you marketing to the right audience?
2. Do you know what that audience wants?
3. Are you solving your audiences’ pain or fulfilling their desire?
4. Does your marketing message speak to your audience’s pain or desire?
5. Does your marketing—and your product or service—make a promise, and live up to it?
6. Do you have a distinct point of view and brand positioning (or are you blending in with everyone else?)
7. Have you gotten out in front of enough people?
8. Is your marketing compelling?
9. Is your product or service compelling?
10. Have you given people a reason to say yes now?

Too often, we get excited about an idea and we don’t stop to ask ourselves if that idea fills a need in the marketplace.

Instead, we get caught up in the process of creating and launching, only to be met with lackluster results.

Remember, just because you’re excited about something doesn’t make it a solid business idea. It must be something your ideal clients are excited about, too. And, you must be able to package it, market it, and deliver it successfully.

So, do your homework before you create and launch.

You still may not be successful every time. Business involves risk, especially if you’re out there on the leading edge—where the most successful businesses live. Be willing to take it, but make your risks educated. And, be willing to get back up when things don’t work out, and try again.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

An outside perspective may be exactly what you need. We’ve all heard the saying “you can’t see the forest for the trees.” Well, you may be lost in the forest!

Or, as Albert Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew.”